CSPS Targets Global Recognition

SEPTEMBER 23, 2016

The Centre for Strategic and Policy Studies (CSPS) is currently working towards being an internationally recognised foresight think-tank, including harnessing organisational innovation and anticipatory governance strategies, in order to achieve the goals of Brunei Vision 2035.

This latest development was highlighted by CSPS Executive Director, Haji Mohd Rozan bin Dato Paduka Haji Mohd Yunos, in his welcoming remarks yesterday, at the opening of the CSPS forum, ‘Applying Strategic Foresight and Horizon Scanning for Policy Making in Brunei’.

Haji Mohd Rozan said, “The CSPS Brunei Futures Initiative (BFI) is set up to bring together and foster synergetic relationships between individuals and organisations, be they experts, practitioners, researchers; or those with an interest in strategic foresight, to collaborate on foresight-related policy challenges, to form high-impact joint efforts and generate significant policy breakthroughs for the government and its partners.”

Over 150 people attended the talk, including permanent secretaries and chief executive officers, as well as senior officers and executives from both the government and the private sectors.The forum’s special guest speaker was Professor SohailInayatullah, the inaugural UNESCO Chair in Futures Studies, and a professor at Melbourne Business School, the University of the Sunshine Coast and Tamkang University in Taipei. The title of his talk was ‘Global Waves of Change: Drown, Ride or Become the Wave-Maker’.

The second presentation, ‘Brunei’s Future Development Options’, was delivered by Dr Ivana Milojević, a senior researcher at CSPS.

Dr Diana Cheong, a CSPS chief researcher, presented the final talk on ‘Brunei’s Trends and Emerging Issues as Warning Signals for Addressing the Future’.

A lengthy panel discussion then followed, along with an interactive question-and-answer session on several topics.

“It was indeed a great opportunity to understand more about foresight, and how it can help us in policy-making for Brunei,” said one participant, while another said, “Foresight is not an easy field to master, but the three presenters did very well in explaining what foresight is, which makes me eager to learn more about its tools and methods.”

A participant from the private sector commented, “It has been an eye-opener, regarding future possibilities.”

Meanwhile, Yuzilawati binti Abdullah, a researcher and coordinator for CSPS Brunei Futures Initiatives, informed the media that CSPS will be conducting three workshops headlined ‘Executive Development Workshop Series in Strategic Foresight and Strategic Planning’.

The first workshop, ‘Strategic Foresight and Horizon Scanning’, will take place in November.It will be followed by the ‘Strategic Planning Using Systems Thinking’ workshop in January 2017 and the ‘Action Learning and Evaluation’ workshop in March 2017.